If I like Phillipa Gregory books....

[lulubelle1977]

What would you recommend?

I like the drama, the historical references, true or not true fiction.

I'm up to The Boleyn inheritance so would carry on going, but if you think there's something else that I'd like, please recommend.

TIA

Elizabeth Chadwick, Sharon Kay Penman, Edith Pargetter - books by these authors should keep you occupied for a while! All are very good, but Sharon Penman's books are very good and some of my favourites.

Look up the literature map - you can type in an author's name and get suggestions of other who write similar novels - I'd second the suggestions it just gave me of Jean Plaidy, Cynthia Harrod Eagles and Philippa Carr (one of Plaidy's other pen names) but lots of suggestions on there. On my phone so can't easily copy the link, but it's the Literature Map via Google. And slightly addictive....

If you can get hold of them from Abebooks or similar sites, Norah Lofts. The Concubine (about Anne Boleyn) was miles better than Gregory's offering.

https://katharineedgar.com/2015/01/09/norah-lofts-and-why-you-should-read-her/

Also Rosemary Hawley Jarman (you'll need Abebooks for her as well). We Speak No Treason (Richard III), The King's Grey Mare (Elizabeth Woodville) and Crown In Candlelight (Katherine of Valois).

Thank you for that tip. I've only just picked up reading again so a lot of these authors are unknown to me. But I'll have a look for those. Any titles I might like?

If you like historical dramas then try the Matthew Shardlake series by CJ Sansom, it's about a hunchback lawyer in Tudor England who solves crimes/mysteries.

Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall etc
Sharon Kay Penman The Sunne in Splendour
Barbara Erskine Lady of Hay
Diana Gabaldon Outlander

Sharon Penman as above. I like When Christ and his Saints Slept best (the White Ship/Stephen and Maude and Elinor of Aquitaine period)
Elizabeth Chadwick. Alison Weir also great.
Jean Plaidy is very much history by numbers (and very unfactual historically) but I love them as comfort food reading.

Alison Weir-
Specifically recommend Innocent Traitor which is about Lady Jane Grey, and The Lost Tudor Princess about Margaret Douglas.

Susannah Dunn?

Georgette Heyer also wrote historical novels - The Conqueror (William I), Royal Escape (Charles II after the battle of Worcester) and An Infamous Army (a love story around the battle of Waterloo). Highly recommend all three.

Have never read any but Dorothy Dunnett used to be very highly regarded as a a a historical novelist.

https://dunnettcentral.org/dorothy/books

Alison Weir - I knew there was someone good that I’d forgotten.

I’ve never read any of her fiction though. Her non-fiction is excellent.